Comparison
Three of these four are not us.
Written for the person preparing the quote rather than the one receiving it. The columns are what you actually lose jobs to. Everything here is good at what it was built for, and the section underneath says plainly when to propose it instead of us.
| Consideration | KNX + CasientWhat you would quote | KNX aloneETS logic, no layer | KNX + logic serverLogicMachine, Gira X1 | Proprietary panelControl4, Basalte, Crestron |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| If the controller diesThe demonstration that wins the comparison | House unaffected — all logic in the bus | No controller to lose | Scenes and logic stop; switches work | Most of what was sold stops |
| Who owns the client | You — no direct channel exists | You | You | Shared with the dealer programme |
| Source of truth for the building | Your ETS project | Your ETS project | ETS plus a parallel config | The panel's own project file |
| Behaviour improves after handover | Yes — learned and arbitrated | No | Only if you rewrite the logic | Only if you reprogram scenes |
| Two automations disagreeWorth asking of anything you are quoted against | Arbitrated on six tiers, logged | Last telegram wins | Last write wins | Last write wins |
| Third-party integrationMedia, HVAC apps, streaming, appliances | Maintained and monitored by us | Gateway by gateway, if at all | Your Lua, your maintenance burden | Good, inside their ecosystem |
| Who fixes it at 9pm | Us for the layer, you for the bus | You | You | Dealer support queue |
| Client can leave the vendor | Yes — a working KNX house remains | Not applicable | Yes, losing the logic | Rip and replace |
| Effect on your Phase 1 | None — added after sign-off | None | A design-time decision | Determines the whole design |
Characterisations of architecture, not benchmarks · Checked September 2026 · Corrections welcome
What to propose
Most jobs are not ours.
Quote KNX alone
No layer
The client wants reliable light, heat and blinds and genuinely nothing else. It will work for thirty years, and neither we nor anyone else needs to be in the room.
Quote a logic server
LogicMachine, Gira X1
The requirement is a fixed set of known behaviours you can write once and are willing to maintain. Cheaper than us and entirely adequate when the brief really is finite.
Quote the panel
Control4, Basalte, Crestron
AV is the centre of the job, the client wants one dealer for everything, and the showroom experience is what is being bought. We do not do AV and are not pretending to.
Add Casient
On top of your KNX
You are losing on capability rather than on quality, the client wants a house that anticipates rather than obeys, and you want to deliver that without handing the building to a proprietary ecosystem.
Where this table is unfair to us.
Every alternative listed ships today, at volume, with a dealer network, a support line and years of field history. We have one reference installation, it is ours, and there are no paying customers. On the axis most of your clients should weight — will this still be supported in five years — all three are ahead of us, and nothing on this page changes that.
Where it is unfair to them.
Reducing Control4 or Basalte to "last write wins" flattens a great deal of real engineering — AV integration, reliability, dealer training, industrial design — that we do not do and are not attempting. A panel house is better executed than ours in most respects a guest would notice. The claim here is narrow and architectural.
If you think a cell in that table is wrong, tell us and we will change it. Being caught overstating this to a technical audience would cost more than any job it won.
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